Alpha Centauri

Forty-Six - Jaden

A/N:  So I'm sure you don't want to hear some lame-ass excuse about why I haven't been updating, so I'm gonna go straight into some heads-ups.

I changed all the narrations to first person, so if the verbs are off and stuff like that, please forgive me.

Aelep's name has been changed to Raev.

Everything is pretty much the same, but the revised the beginning a lot, so you might wanna go back and check that out.

Thanks! ~Mordie

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Julian and I stand before Sagittarius, both anticipating the journey we have ahead of us. It's a strange feeling to have, knowing the rest of your life is beyond the hatch of some spaceship. Just last week Julian and I were struggling to make a decent meal, and now we're on a race to reclaim a planet.

I want to feel like this is a fresh start for me, like this leg of the journey is an opportunity to leave all the shit I've been through behind, but a lot of it is still clinging to me.

For Julian this genuinely a new start. For him it's really nothing but an open path. For him it's just a matter of surviving the journey.

For me, well, I've got a bit more to endure than an epic intergalactic voyage.

Nizami is the first one to board the ship. She's sitting on one of the bunks when Julian and I step aboard. It's never easy to tell what's on her mind, but I'm willing to guess that she's ready. She's ready for her hell of a mission to end. She's ready for us to be safe, and she's ready to stop having to deal with her newly found, so-called feelings.

I find a seat on the bunk opposite of Nizami's and watch as Julian's hand ever so subtly brushes over hers as he takes a seat next to her. Normally I'd call it disgusting, but I'm happy for my brother. And I'm not gonna start feeling miserable for myself.

When I shift my position, my hand brushes an item that's been placed on my bunk: my newly cleaned Green Day hoodie. A smile tugs at my mouth when I pull it back over my head. I make my way to the hatch to wait for Nathan.

He's stumbling up the ramp and into his ship, leaving behind a crowd of cheering Proximians. His face is completely red, and he looks numb, as if he doesn't know how to react to what just happened to him. When I see Hermes standing outside with a smirk on his face, I don't have to guess what just happened to him. I give Hermes a thumbs up, like good job, glad you guys finally got that out of the way, and punch the button the closes the hatch.

And so begins the next leg of our journey.

Nathan is immediately elected the captain of Sagittarius, which of course makes him prouder than it should. Nizami is made co-captain, and Julian and Nizami are unanimously voted Couple Always Sucking Face in the Background.

I'm grateful we've returned to the point where we can all poke fun at each other even with the threat of our imminent doom lurking in the background. I'm glad I'm back with my brother like we're supposed to be. I'm glad we'll be finishing this together.

An hour or so after we depart, Julian discovers the thick stack of Proximian literature stashed under his bunk. At first I think it's going to be a bust because it's foreign, but everything is in English. Nathan reminds us that the Proximians have adopted English as their national tongue.

In case I've failed to mention it, Julian is a total, dictionary-definition nerd. But not just any nerd—a total, unrelenting, page-devouring bookworm. Back on Earth, he'd inhale whatever paperback he could get his hands on. As soon as he'd scrounged up the money for a public library card, he'd checked out as many books at a time he could every week. He'd gobbled up every young adult fiction novel available (even Twilight) and then some. To this day he still has every one on file in that oversized brain of his. Even Nathan admits Julian's a bigger reader than him.